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Elvis Andrus, Joey Gallo Span Rangers' Offensive Spectrum

Me: Well, I guess y'all aren't messing around this week. Right to it, huh?

This - and plenty of calls on social media for the heads of coaching staff members - are becoming fan topics and I think everybody gets it. Poor results = call for firings from fans. Management, however, doesn't function in quite the same manner. The bottom line in baseball is wins and losses, but there are also other factors. Among them: Track record, talent on the field, extenuating circumstances.

To those points, Banister has a track record of a pair of division titles in his first two years and, regardless how "weak" the race for the second wild card last year, the Rangers were in the hunt with 10 games to play. The talent on the field had, as GM Jon Daniels has acknowledged, "little margin for error." And, as for extenuating circumstances, there is this: The Rangers have had their expected starting lineup for 2018 on the field for exactly two games (they were 1-1 in those) and won't get it back until June 11 (when Elvis Andrus is eligible to be activated from the DL) at the earliest.

In my evaluation, Banister has addressed some areas that were concerns last year, namely communication. Is it a work in progress? Yes.

I've not seen anything that suggests the Rangers are close to making a managerial change and my experience with Jon Daniels is that this is a guy who doesn't see a whole lot of benefit in making a major change "just to shake things up." The Rangers don't have a great team this year. Management and ownership knows that. As such, there is an element of managed expectations here. The expectations for Banister: Continue to evolve and grow as a communicator, who understands the current young baseball player's mind, and help the growth of players like Joey Gallo, Nomar Mazara, Rougned Odor, Jurickson Profar, Delino DeShields, Ronald Guzman, Isiah Kiner-Falefa and pitchers Jose Leclerc and Keone Kela. For the most part - with the injured Odor being the exception - you'd have to say that individual results for these guys are trending upwards.